Luke pilots deliver first JDAM

  • Published
  • By Major John Wheeler
  • 56th Fighter Wing Weapons Officer
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The 61st Fighter Squadron made history last week by becoming the first 56th Fighter Wing squadron to drop a Guided Bomb Unit-31 Joint Defense Area Munition. The new JDAM delivery profile in the Barry M. Goldwater range was designed to better prepare our warfighters for combat. This event marks the culmination of several months of coordination by organizations across base.

Joint Defense Area Munition drops are a new part of the Basic Course syllabus at Luke. Until now, all JDAM deliveries were simulated. Although these simulated deliveries taught students the basics of
JDAM profiles, it fell short of the lessons students get out of actually dropping the weapon. The first thing students learn by dropping the actual weapon is the unique mission planning process required by the
JDAM. Unlike any other bomb, the JDAM must be loaded with Global Positioning Satellite crypto-variable keys. These keys allow the bomb to decipher satellite signal from the GPS constellation for enhanced
accuracy. The only way to complete this mission planning loop and know the weapons release was successful is to see the JDAM aligning to the GPS and watching the bomb hit the target.

Student pilots and maintainers are now able to see what the bomb looks like and learn how it connects to the jet. By having JDAM drops at Luke, the munitions facility gets to practice building the bomb, the weapons loaders practice loading, and the crew-chiefs and student pilots practice performing preflights on the weapon. The future impact of this will be more maintainers and operators who have seen
the GBU-31 loaded before, and thus better able to detect problems during contingency operations. This may be the difference between the weapons working as planned and mission failure.

Finally, the students get a myriad of lessons by actually flying with a real weapon on board. Simulated weapons do not show the pilot any degraded issues or malfunctions. By carrying the actual bomb, student pilots now see how the weapon communicates with the aircraft. In the past, instructors could also speak to
these issues in theory. The students are also able to learn the effects the weapon has on jet flight characteristics before it's released. The jet flies much differently with 4,000 additional pounds of weight on the wings. In addition, students get to build confidence in assessment of weapon impact compared
to their planned point of impact. Such an assessment in combat is crucial to determining if a target is counted as destroyed or if another attack is needed. All of these lessons make our B-Course graduates better prepared to employ the JDAM in combat

Integrating JDAM into the syllabus at Luke was a monumental task that required several components of the Thunderbolt team. The coordination process has been in the works for over one year. Last week's successful JDAM drops were a testament to the amazing teamwork between operations, weapons loaders, maintenance, range management, scheduling and several other base organizations.

Since the start of Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM, precision guided munitions have been a crucial tool for putting bombs on target while minimizing civilian casualties. The JDAM has been a primary force in the combat air forces precision guided munitions arsenal. There have been several occasions when graduates from Luke's B-Course have dropped their first actual JDAM in
combat within months of leaving Luke. Now, all graduates of the F-16 Formal Training Unit will have experienced dropping these weapons before doing it for the first time in combat.